Herbert List Captured Surreal Images Way Before Photoshop

The mid-20th century photography of Herbert List, a surrealist photographer working from the mid-1930s through the 1960s, looks incredibly realistic. Executing dream-like images before Photoshop seems like an arduous challenge few would be willing to explore, yet of course that is not actually the case. This series of gruesome mid-20th century photography shows that such attention to detail and reality in an unreal way can be just as rewarding physically rather than digitally.

Influenced by the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, the black and white mid-20th century photography series revolves around fake scientific models with their skin cut away and their guts partially exposed. Unnerving, moody and strange, the images focus on a disturbing documentary style of photography that gives them an even more realistic feel.